CChapter 37: Old Friends, New Rivals!

A long, draw out yawn escaped the lips of Lucy as her eyes flickered open. The small living room of her and Natsu's shared apartment was pitch black. With the exception of the television which was illuminating the dark room while it looped through the menu screen of the DVD she had fallen asleep watching with Natsu. After prom had ended the two decided to just head back home, and have a mini date that consisted of popcorn, candy and a marathon of the Harry Potter movies. Lucy looked down and found Natsu was laying on the couch underneath her, her head resting on his firm chest. The sound of his steady heartbeat had a weird effect on her, it somehow calmed her down to the point of nothing else in the world mattering besides her, and him. Natsu let out a small snore, and Lucy felt her heart flutter in her chest, his arms were wrapped around her waist pulling her close to him. She placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and beamed before she snuggled back into his chest.

"You make me happy..." She purred.

"You make me happy as well." Natsu sleepily responded, and tightened his grip around her. Lucy blushed and smiled at this. She slowly held herself up with her arms to look down at her best friend, turned boyfriend. He looked back at her with drowsy eyes, but still full of love and happiness. Given how he had been the last few days this was a very welcome sight for Lucy. He reached up and caressed her cheek and smiled warmly.

"You're beautiful…" He muttered lovingly and Lucy felt her heart melt at the way he looked at her. It wasn't like how any other guy had looked at her before, instead of looking at her like she was just some slab of meat he was looking at the smaller details of her face that he had failed to notice over the many years. The way her large chocolate brown eyes seemed to shimmer, the dimple way her long golden hair seemed to flow like a waterfall. He just loved all of her.

"Awww, you're adorable." Lucy began playing with his salmon locks, drawing a positive response from Natsu who smiled and closed his eyes letting a soft moan escape his lips. Lucy studied his resting features with nothing, but pure adoration. Slowly she looked through the window and saw that it was still dark outside, a glance at the digital clock they had put on a wall nearby showed that it was only one in the morning. Another yawn escaped Lucy's mouth as she returned her gaze to Natsu who seemed to be falling back asleep as she ran her hands through his soft hair.

"Hey...why don't we go to bed, it's pretty late and you seem sleepy." Lucy gently removed her hand from his hand, causing him to groan and slowly open his eyes.

"But I like this...it's nice." Natsu mumbled and tightened his hug, forcing Lucy to stifle a giggle at his actions. She leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on his nose.

"I didn't say that we couldn't cuddle, I just said that we should head to bed...the couch isn't that comfy." Lucy couldn't hold in the small laugh that escaped her lips as his eyes opened and attempted to process her words.

"You mean you want to share a bed?" He asked with the normal confused expression that Lucy found oh so endearing.

"I mean if you want to of course….I just figured it would be nicer than sleeping on the couch, and I know you don't necessarily like that air mattress you sleep on…" Lucy responded nervously, causing Natsu to blush lightly before smiling broadly, suddenly looking very awake.

"NATSU WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Lucy shrieked as Natsu out of nowhere sat up causing Lucy to slide and straddle his lap for a split second before he stood up and threw her over his shoulder. Natsu laughed as Lucy began punching his back.

"Put me down! I am still in a dress, you jerk!" Lucy scolded him while she beat up his back. Natsu continued laughing, he walked over to the television and switched it off.

"Relax Luce nobodies here besides us, and Happy." Natsu mumbled and began walking over to Lucy's bedroom, the blonde just continued to pound his back.

"Doesn't mean I want my dress riding up! Just put me down!" Lucy demanded the second Natsu kicked her bedroom door open.

"As you wish…" Natsu smirked deviously, and Lucy let out a yelp as she was thrown onto her mattress. She glared up at her boyfriend who was just laughing his butt off, but the second he saw his girlfriend's face that quickly stopped. He moved to exit the room, with a nervous expression.

"I'm gonna go get changed…" Natsu nervously mumbled and slowly moved to leave the room, before breaking into a full on sprint as he locked himself in his bedroom. Lucy watched on in amazement and rolled her eyes before she stood up, and got off her bed. She slowly unzipped her prom dress and stepped out of it, allowing it to fall to the ground. She stretched out relishing the freedom she now possessed, free from the constricting restrictions of the dress. She walked over to her dresser and pulled out a cute night gown that had all the different symbols of the zodiac signs. Sliding it over her head, she then slowly walked over to the bathroom to brush her teeth. By the time she finished and stepped out Natsu was walking out of his bedroom wearing a pair of pajama pants and a plain black tank top. Lucy bit her lip and stared at his well defined arms, just thinking about how nice it felt to be engulfed in them while he held her close to him.

"Hiya stranger, long time no see…" Natsu joked and Lucy chuckled lightly and slowly stalked over to him.

"Too long if you ask me." Lucy jokingly purred while she wrapped her arms around his neck. Natsu smirked and the two placed their foreheads against the other's.

"You ready for bed?" Natsu asked her with a smirk Lucy yawned in response, and nodded her head. Natsu grinned and pecked her on the top of her head before he ducked down, and literally swept her off her feet. Scooping her into his arms bridal style he walked them into the bedroom, with no complaints from Lucy this time around. She was too busy enjoying being held in Natsu's strong arms, her hand caressed his forearm. Another yawn escaped her, she was exhausted following the events of the night. Natsu gently laid her onto her mattress after he turned off her lamp. He hopped onto the bed with her, it was far from the first time the two had shared a bed so it wasn't difficult for the two to quickly get themselves comfortable underneath the blanket.

"Hey Natsu?" Lucy spoke out while he was busy tucking himself under the blanket.

"Hmm?" He mumbled and draped an arm around her.

"I had a great time tonight….thank you for everything..." Lucy smiled and snuggled into his arms. She felt his chest rumble while he chuckled.

"I had fun too….I love you so much..." Natsu gave her a tight squeeze. Lucy looked up at his face, despite the darkness she was able to make out all his features. Slowly she leaned up into him and connected their lips together, Natsu reciprocated immediately. It started off innocent enough like their previous kisses, the two barely pressing against the other's but it slowly evolved into something hungrier, and deeper. Natsu's grip on her tightened, and she rolled them over so that she was laying on top of him, her hands moving up to both sides of his face. Natsu nipped her bottom lip causing her to open her mouth, granting him access. Just as the kiss was starting to heat up, things were rudely interrupted by a certain blue cat. Happy was very annoyed that his humans were too busy eating each other's faces to pay attention to him. So he did the most logical thing for a cat, he leapt onto the bed landing right on his human's heads.

"Oww! Happy!" Lucy hissed as the cat meowed unhappily and began pawing at her hands that were still on Natsu's cheeks. Natsu sent a glare to the blue furball who proceeded to lay down next to them and meow angrily again.

"Okay, okay...fineee...you big fat jerk!" Lucy sighed and begrudgingly rolled off her boyfriend to pet the spoiled feline.

"We need to remember to close the door…." Natsu muttered and rolled over onto his side and spooned Lucy close to him.

"You're damn right...don't think I'm done with you." Lucy grumpily agreed before she scooted back against his firm body allowing him to hold her tightly while she gave the cat chin scratches.

"I'll hold you to that." Natsu chuckled and slowly drifted off to sleep leaving Lucy to glare at the cat.

"I hope you're proud of yourself , you frickin clam jammer…" Lucy muttered before succumbing to her own sleepiness, a smile plastered on her face as she felt Natsu's strong arm squeeze her close to his body.

Even though Lucy had successfully drifted off into a peaceful slumber in the arms of her boyfriend, however Natsu was not as fortunate. At around three in the morning the small bedroom the two were sharing was filled with sounds of Natsu's harsh, and unsteady breathing. His body was covered in a cold sweat as he thrashed about on the queen sized bed. Suddenly Natsu shot up to a sitting position panting heavily, his hair laid flat and stuck to his forehead that was covered in sweat along with his entire body. He covered his face with his clammy hands and tried to steady his breath. Slowly he looked over to where Lucy was still quietly sleeping with a small smile on her face. He studied her closely, watching the way her chest rose and fell he let out a shaky sigh of relief.

"Oh thank God…" Happy watched his owner carefully as Natsu stood up and slowly walked out of the room. Natsu slowly entered the bathroom and turned on the sink, with shaking hands he cupped some water and bent over the sink to splash water onto his face. He closed his eyes and relished in the ice cold water cooling down his face, as he closed his eyes he was transported back to the horrid nightmare he had awoken from. There was a knock on the bathroom door, he turned to glance at it as it swung open to reveal a half-asleep Lucy who looked at him worriedly.

"There you are...is everything okay? You just got up and left without saying anything…" Lucy asked as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. Natsu said nothing, instead he hid his face away from her, his body began shaking again.

"Natsu?..." Lucy questioned and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, this caused him to flinch at her touch and stiffen. He glanced at her and one look at her worried face let him know that she wasn't going to leave without him telling her what was wrong.

"I'm okay...just a bad dream is all…it's nothing..." Natsu said unconvincingly and gave her a forced smile that Lucy saw straight through. She sat up on the counter and pulled him in front of her, and placed her hands on either side of his face so that he had no other choice than to look her straight in the eyes.

"Why don't you tell me about the dream?..." She asked sweetly, Natsu shook his head and smiled softly.

"I'm okay, it's nothing really….I'm just happy you're okay…" He leaned in to rest his forehead on hers, Lucy just raised an eyebrow in response.

"Come on Natsu, it's obvious something is bugging you….what happened in your nightmare?" Natsu's fake smile morphed into a frown and he looked away from her. Lucy frowned and held his face so he could look at her.

"Hey, it's just me...you can always talk to me, I don't want you to think that you are alone." Natsu sighed and looked her dead in the eyes.

"Do….do you think that us getting together is a mistake?" He asked quietly, so quietly that Lucy wasn't sure she heard him correctly, but one look at the confused expression on his face told her that she heard him right.

"W-what?...Of course not!...Why? Do you?!" Lucy began to panic, and suddenly feeling very awake began to nervously fidget on the counter she was sitting on, her heart was pacing as she looked at his face carefully.

"I-I….don't know…." Natsu muttered and pulled away from her leaving her feeling cold and empty. She sat there stunned as Natsu backed up against the wall and massaged his temples.

"Natsu…please talk to me, what brought this up?...Was it the nightmare?" Lucy managed to hide the panic in her voice, she sat there squirming on the counter awaiting Natsu's reply nervously. Eventually he gave her a slight nod, and Lucy let out a small sigh.

"...It was you…." Natsu spoke quietly, causing Lucy to give him a strange look. He took a deep breath before continuing.

"In my nightmare….I was back in Nirvana….but instead of Daphne, it was you…" He explained and Lucy looked at him worriedly.

"It was all my fault...I couldn't protect you…I just want to keep you safe Luce, but if someone finds out who I am….like Zero does….how can I protect you? I don't want to lose you Luce...I can't, but I'm not strong enough to keep you safe either…" Lucy looked down at the ground sadly and jumped off the counter, slowly she walked over to him and hugged him.

"It's okay….I'm right here, and I promise nothing is going to happen to me…" She comforted her boyfriend who stood completely still.

"How can you be sure of that?" He asked quietly, Lucy just looked at him with a warm smile and reached up to caress his cheek.

"Because…it's like you said all those months ago after your fight with Laxus….I might get hurt, or scarred, but nothing will keep me from coming back to you…..so no I don't think getting together is a mistake….because Natsu I will love you with all my heart for the rest of our lives….even if we aren't dating doesn't make me any less of a target…." Natsu stared down at her, and she flashed him a big smile.

"Besides….I need to defend you just as much as you feel like you need to defend me….so you aren't going to be able to get rid of me that easily...I waited a long time for this…" She stood up on her tip toes and kissed him gently on the lips.

"I'll be damned if I lose it after less than a day…" She whispered in his ear, and he shuddered and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I don't want you to get hurt…" He muttered against the top of her head.

"That's unavoidable Natsu...but it doesn't deter me from wanting to stay with you….I don't want to see you get hurt, but I also won't stop you from being Salamander…..you just have to have faith in us, have faith in me that everything will be okay...you said it yourself, cuts, and bruises heal. Nothing to me is worse than thinking about not having you in my life. I can give you time to think about it if you need, but I don't want to go back to how we were...I want to stay with you forever...if you decide though that you think we are better off friends than I will understand." Lucy felt tears in her eyes, and a pulling sensation inside of her gut at the thought of breaking up with Natsu, but if it's what he felt needed to happen then she wasn't going to push him into anything he didn't want.

"I want to be together too...I love you Lucy, I'm just scared."

"I'm scared too, but my love for you is stronger than my fear of what may happen…" Lucy replied gently, and Natsu began to pull away from the tight hug they were in, but only enough so that he could lean down and capture her lips in another kiss. Lucy smiled against his lips and reciprocated the action, pulling him in closer she was able to deepen in. Natsu picked her up, causing her to wrap her legs around his waist, and break the kiss. She rested her head against his shoulder and neck.

"Let's go back to bed." Natsu muttered, and Lucy let out a yawn before nodding. She kissed his cheek and jumped out of his arms. The two made their way to the bedroom, and Natsu plopped down on the bed. Lucy however lingered and thought about the conversation they had shared. Natsu noticed this and looked at her confused, Lucy didn't say anything and just got into bed with him. One thing was for sure, this whole dating thing was going to take some getting used to.

"Come on Lucy….are you going to keep us in the dark, or are you going to give us the details!" Cana's loud voice exclaimed from where she stood behind the bar at the Fairy Tail building. Lucy rolled her eyes and handed Asuka her plate of food that Mira had cooked.

"What do you mean by that?" Lucy questioned and looked over to her brunette friend with a hand on her hip. Since Lucy had begun working as help along with Levy at the guild she had really bonded with Cana, Mirajane, and a couple others. Cana just chuckled and took a swig of her drink.

"Lucy? What is Miss Cana talking about?" Asuka asked from her seat next to her mother who was also paying attention to the conversation.

"I wish I knew…." Lucy muttered and Cana made an exasperated expression.

"Oh come on blondie….I'm talking bout you and your new boy toy! Erza said that you two made out at prom last night." Lucy's face flushed and she glared at the brunette.

"Oh my...Lucy who is the lucky guy?" Mira piped up as she appeared from the kitchen, apparently she had been eavesdropping the conversation. Lucy's face just got darker.

"Ummm…" Lucy nervously let out, she was unsure of what to do/say, she and Natsu hadn't talked about whether or not they would tell the guild they were together yet.

"Oooh, this sounds juicy...Asuka hun, why don't you go find your father. Mommy is going to have a grown up chat with the girls…" Bisca stated, and Asuka obliged and got up out of her chair with her food and went off looking for her father, Lucy's face just continued to darken out of embarrassment.

"Is it that Dan boy you have been hanging around the past few months?" Mira asked, causing Lucy to make a disgusted face.

"Ewww, no. I have standards thank you…" Lucy retorted, but this got a snort out of a new person. She turned to face Levy who like Mira had been eavesdropping in the kitchen, and walked behind the counter to plop a seat next to Bisca.

"Oh please Lu, where were those standards of you the last two months when he was following you like a lost puppy?" Levy chuckled, causing the other girls to glance at her.

"It's not like I ever wanted to date him or anything like that! I just thought he was a fun person to hang around...and I felt bad since he was a transfer student and didn't really know anyone…." Lucy explained, but then shuddered.

"Believe me that's one mistake I will regret for a long, longggggg time…." The other girls laughed at the disgusted look on Lucy's face.

"Then please do tell, what boy is good enough for our little Lucy." Cana threw an arm over Lucy's shoulders and nudged her side, Lucy once again felt her cheeks heat up at the unwanted attention.

"Yeah, please tell us who it is! I wanna meet him!" Mira added on her normal bubbly voice as she sat next to Bisca at the bar, Levy chuckled from beside her.

"I'm sure you could guess it's by no means a surprise…" Levy chuckled, causing Bisca to look at her in surprise.

"You're kidding Lucy, and Gray?! I always knew they had something, but I never wanted to bring it up cause Gray was with Juvia…" She stated, and all the color drained from Lucy's face.

"What's this I hear about my darling Gray….." Juvia's chilling voice seemed to come out of seemingly nowhere, and all the girls looked horrified as they stared back and forth between the stunned, and mortified Lucy, and the seething Juvia who was glaring daggers.

"J-Juvia...it's nice to see you!" Mira grinned in an attempt to break the awkwardness. Juvia however ignored Mira, and continued glaring at Lucy.

"I thought we were friends….but I should've known better! I always knew you would be my love rival, you hussy!" Juvia spat at Lucy who looked shocked, and disgusted.

"Juvia, relax Lucy is not your love rival…" Levy sighed and got up to put a hand on the other blue haired girl's shoulder.

"Yeah seriously….no offense Juvia, but I don't like Gray like that at all! If anything he's a brother to me!" Lucy explained in an attempt to calm down the seething water-powered girl.

"Yeah right! I've seen the smiles he gives you...and the way you undress him with your stares!" Juvia held up her hand and a ball of water formed in her palm, Lucy gulped and prepared to get soaking wet.

"Woah, woah, woah...let's not do anything hasty!" Bisca stood up and leapt in between the two girls.

"Yeah relax! We don't want anyone to get hurt!" Mira also got up, Cana meanwhile glared at Juvia.

"I swear to everything holy...if you destroy even one of my babies, I will end you!" Cana moved away from Lucy to stand protectively in front of the shelves of alcohol that was behind the bar with the two girls.

"Juvia please calm down! I don't want your boyfriend! I have my own!" Lucy cowered behind her arms that were shielding her face.

"Oh yeah! Likely story! I'm sure you are just using them as a cover up so that you could steal the heart of my beloved from under me!" This caused Lucy to lower her arms and glare at her friend.

"That isn't even remotely true! I would never use Natsu! Let alone to try and take Gray away from you!" Lucy snapped without even thinking, and immediately covered her mouth as her face turned bright pink. Busted.

"Oh…." Cana smirked slyly and moved away from the shelves of alcohol, once again she draped an arm around an embarrassed Lucy who was standing there stunned that she had just let it slip. The other females with the exception of Levy who smirked knowingly were all staring at Lucy shocked. Juvia suddenly forgot that she had been ready to kill the blonde seconds ago and let out an excited squeal.

"WAIT REALLY LUCY! CONGRATSSSS! I ALWAYS KNEW YOU TWO WERE PERFECT FOR THE OTHER!" Juvia happily jumped up and down. Mira let out an excited squeaking noise as well.

"I'm so happy for you two! I could tell that you two were close, and to be honest I had been rooting for you!" Lucy's face darkened from beneath her hands.

"Oh gosh! I shoulda guessed that you two were going to be a thing, Asuka said you two acted like you were practically married." Asuka nervously laughed, Cana smirked at the embarrassed girl and decided to mess with her.

"Tell us Lucy….has he put these to good use yet?" Cana grinned and with the arm that wasn't resting on Lucy's shoulders she copped a feel of Lucy's cleavage and bounced it slightly. Lucy's face turned dark red and she let out a shriek, before pulling away from a now laughing hysterically Cana and held an arm protectively in front of her chest.

"CANA WHAT THE HELL?!" She snapped, and the brunette chuckled, and walked over to her again.

"Relax blondie….but for real is our dear, sweet, innocent Natsu a boob guy...or does he prefer this?" Cana asked and smacked Lucy's butt, drawing another shriek from the embarrassed girl. The others who were watching on chuckled at their friend's embarrassment.

"For the record we didn't do anything like that! We just watched some movies!" Lucy snapped.

"Sureeee….I believe you..." Cana said sarcastically, and gave Lucy a dirty-minded wink.

"I'm serious! Nothing happened!" Lucy yelled, and the group of girls burst out into laughter at the blondes expense. Suddenly the doors to the guild swung open and revealed the person they were just talking about standing in the entrance with a grim expression. Lucy would have been relieved to see him if number one, it hadn't been directly following her letting it slip to her friends that they were a couple, and number two. If there hadn't been some random girl she had never met before getting carried piggyback style by him.

"Ummm….Natsu who's that?" Elfman asked as Natsu's expression darkened. He ignored Elfman and found Lucy, who was looking at him in confusion mixed with something that he didn't know.

"Luce...where's Wendy? I need to borrow her powers." Natsu explained and turned around so that Lucy could see the girl he was carrying who was clearly unconscious, she had short silky silver hair, just like Sorano's, but she was beat up, like real bad. Her face had several bruises, and cuts. Mira let out a gasp, prompting several others to look over at Natsu's direction.

"Here, I'll take her upstairs….do you know who she is and what happened to her?" Erza walked over towards Natsu who handed off the unconscious girl to the redhead and glowered.

"Her name is Yukino...she was in Nirvana with me...and yeah, before she passed out she managed to explain everything to me…" Natsu replied, but didn't explain much. He turned to Lucy with a frown.

"I'm heading out...I doubt I'll be home before dinner, so don't wait up…" He stated with a dark undertone to his voice, one that instantly told Lucy something was wrong.

"Where do you think you're going?" Erza asked the salmon haired boy who sent her a dark glare.

"Just visiting those asshole's that did this to her...Salamander style…." He stalked off before anyone could say anything.

"Natsu?" Lucy questioned utterly confused by her boyfriend's actions, but Natsu stormed out of the guild before she got to question him. He tightened his fists and stormed off to the location Yukino had told him about, the capital city of Crocus…

"Sabertooth…." Natsu muttered darkly and his body began to heat up. He had been on his way to the guild when he had come across Yukino who stumbled off a bus.

"Yukino is that you?" Natsu called out to the crying girl who almost tripped on a curb. She turned to face him with teary eyes, and Natsu was able to see that she looked like crap.

"Oh man….what happened?" He asked her gently, but the girl just fell to her knees and began crying more.

"Natsu...it's good to see you again….." Yukino muttered, but Natsu ducked down to her level. The two ignored the strange stares of people who walked past them.

"It's good to see you too Yukino...now what happened? Who did this to you?..."

"It's nothing...I'm sorry you have to see me like this…." Yukino whimpered and moved to get up, but Natsu caught her arm.

"Hey come on, it's no big deal...the way I see it we were both imprisoned in that Hellhole, so we have to look out for each other now…" Natsu offered her a smile, and Yukino threw herself around him and began sobbing.

"I-it's n-nothing….I just got kicked out of my guild….my master found out that I lost my powers in Nirvana, and…..and….made me…..remove my mark….in front of everyone…..after that….he…" Yukino trailed off, and broke down into harsh sobs.

"What did he do after that?" Natsu asked her darkly, this took Yukino by surprise who had never heard Natsu's infamous about to burn everything in sight voice before.

"H-he...did this…" Yukino gestured to the bruises on her face, and saw Natsu's eyes darken.

"He told me to leave Crocus, and that I'd never be allowed back in Sabertooth since they have no place for...weaklings. Like me…." Her voice grew quiet, and Natsu stood up, he placed a hand down on her head.

"I know we aren't friends or anything….but like I said, we were both in Nirvana together….that alone makes you a helluva lot stronger than most people….you ain't a weakling, so get up….I'll take you to Fairy Tail, they'll patch you up…" Natsu spoke almost like a wild animal.

"Natsu?...You're scaring me…" Yukino whimpered, but Natsu just held up a hand to help her up to her feet.

"Sorry bout that...I just get angry that someone would treat you or anyone else like that….especially your guild master, I know mine would never put anyone down like that….the point of a guild is to help each other grow stronger….not to single out the so-called wink links…now what are you doing down there still?" He helped Yukino up to her feet and once it became apparent that she could barely walk he offered to help her out. During the trip to Fairy Tail they had received many strange glances, but he ignored them. Yukino had passed out right before they had reached their destination.

"I know my friends are probably confused, but I'm sure once she comes to Yukino will let them all know what happened…." Natsu muttered to himself as he stood at a bus stop. He hated vehicles with a passion and knew that this was going to result in him throwing up the breakfast Lucy had made for him before she left for work, but he didn't care. He had some punks he needed to teach a lesson.

Chapter 38: Storming the Castle

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay on this chapter! I have been a little busy with work, and life in general. I hope you have all checked out The Storm, and are enjoying that story! I really enjoy making these stories for you, and look forward to making more!